IDF Fall 2006 - Day 2: Geneseo, Santa Rosa, Memory Roadmap and More
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 28, 2006 3:43 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Parallels at IDF
It's still very odd seeing Macs at an Intel Developer Forum; every time we pass one we get this feeling that someone must have snuck one in to a demo, before it eventually sinks in that we're staring at an Intel based Mac.
Windows Vista running under OS X on a MacBook Pro
Parallels, the developers of the Parallels Desktop for Mac VM manager, was at Intel's Technology Showcase demonstrating its VM software with VT support.
While the demonstrations were nothing new, the Parallels representative did say that in the next week we should expect an updated build of Parallels Desktop for Mac with support for PAE. PAE support is critical because currently, you can't run 32-bit Windows XP under Parallels on a Mac Pro outfitted with more than 3.5GB of memory. The only option is to either remove some of your memory or disable it in software, which also means you are running with less memory under OS X. Once PAE support is enabled, Windows XP running under Parallels on OS X will be able to work just fine with Mac Pro configurations equipped with more than 3.5GB of memory.
Also, by the end of this year, we should expect a further update of Parallels Desktop with some level of hardware 3D acceleration support. The Parallels rep indicated that it would be sufficient for games but we remain skeptical until we can see it in action.
Parallels also makes VM managers for Windows and Linux
Final Words
This year's Fall IDF is almost over, but we've still got some miscellaneous content remaining and a half day of information and presentations. If it's worth reporting, you'll know where to find it.
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porkster - Thursday, September 28, 2006 - link
If you ask me, laptop graphics is a major issue at the moment.Intel really needs to bring forth the Santa Rosa chipset to set a new bench level for gfx. x3000 maybe just enough to move upto, but even the power of the gfx intergrations, isn't that great.
Vista will make most laptop's second generation, the day it is released.
johnsonx - Thursday, September 28, 2006 - link
It's been speculated that AMD would have something to show in a hotel room across the street from IDF as they have in past years. So far it seems AMD is silent this year. A bad sign? AMD not as close on quad-core and/or K8-L as everyone has been hoping?What's the industry scuttlebutt on this?
smitty3268 - Thursday, September 28, 2006 - link
I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps K8L won't actually be any faster than current Conroes?fitten - Thursday, September 28, 2006 - link
You know... as much as people say this, it's odd that the aging FSB architecture is in the fastest system on the market right now... even faster than "newer" non-FSB architecture. Sure, it may not post as high synthetic benchmark bandwidth and latency numbers but when running applications, it sure seems to do pretty well. Sure, a new interconnect architecture might make it even faster and cooler but simply because the FSB is "aging" doesn't necessarily imply that it doesn't work.
Xenoterranos - Thursday, September 28, 2006 - link
While I agree with your point, at the crux of the argument is the question about when FSB will be too out dated. We all know it doesn't scale that well, and it's a testament to Intel's engineering teams that they are able to make it work so well. On the Xeons we see them moving toward dual FSB's, considering that we now have dual core processors, maybe this isn't that bad of a sign for the good ol FSB. HyperTransport is making great strides, and I would love to see Intel direct some of it's considerable brainpower at (co?)developing a new system like that instead of finessing all the power they can out of the one they have. I think they really believe that FSB is the way to go right now, but I would seriously doubt they have no plans to move to something like HT in the future.fitten - Friday, September 29, 2006 - link
Intel's serial interconnect that they're working on is called CSI.Clauzii - Thursday, September 28, 2006 - link
I find it kind of funny to see Vista running on MAC OS ;)